Voltage Transformer

Description (Brief):

A transformer was one of the critical components needed to make an electrical power system based on alternating current. Transformers raise and lower the electrical voltage (or potential) or the current, depending on the design. Electrical inventors Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbs introduced a practical design in Europe in 1882. George Westinghouse licensed their design and William Stanley, an engineer working in his company, added refinements that improved the device. This potential transformer has two coils of wire–one coil with a few turns of thick wire, the other with many turns of thin wire. A current passing through one (the primary coil) induces a current in the other (the secondary coil). The voltage can be raised or lowered depending on which coil serves as primary.

Date Made: ca 1889

Maker: Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

See more items in: Work and Industry: Electricity, Energy & Power, American Enterprise

Exhibition: American Enterprise

Exhibition Location: National Museum of American History

Credit Line: from Princeton University, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, thru Dean Howard Menand

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: EM.318584Catalog Number: 318584Accession Number: 232729

Object Name: transformerpotential transformerOther Terms: transformer; Measuring Devices

Physical Description: wood (overall material)metal (overall material)cloth (overall material)mica (overall material)Measurements: overall: 16 3/4 in x 9 in x 6 in; 42.545 cm x 22.86 cm x 15.24 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-44a2-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_705959

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